This text describes the excavation of three royal tombs of the Moche, a civilisation that flourished on the north coast of Peru between AD 100 and 800. The tombs, which contained extraordinary gold and silver jewellery and ceremonial attire, are the richest ever excavated in the Western Hemisphere. The accounts of the tombs and methods of excavation detailed should be useful for scholars, but the authors have made the non-specialist reader their primary audience. The format of the book and its fold-out pages are helpful in relating tomb artefacts to text descriptions. Providing an exemplary view of an ancient culture, the Sipan tombs have had a profound impact on our understanding of Moche civilization.

About the Author&colon;

Walter Alva is Chief Archaeologist of the excavations at Sipn and Director of the Bruning Archaeological Museum in Lambayeque, Peru. Christopher B. Donnan is Professor of Anthropology at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History.